From Google, Kans.  which Topeka is temporarily changing its name to in an attempt to win a competition run by the Internet giant  to Truth or Consequences, N.M., the stories behind oddball place names are often more interesting than the names themselves

A Town Called Google

By Claire SuddathThursday, Mar. 04, 2010

Joseph Sohm / Visions of America / Corbis

Google is accepting applications from cities and towns that wish to become the location of the Internet behemoth's experiment for an ultra-high-speed broadband network. Topeka, Kans. (pop. 120,000  or about 15 times the size of Google, the company) wants to be chosen so badly that it has preemptively one-upped the competition by renaming itself Google, Kans., for the entire month of March 2010. Will Top er, Google get the gig? We'll find out when the competition ends on March 26.